Turntable Sound - Turntable News & Information » News

ABC News on the ELP Laser Turntable

Administrator — Wed, 04 May 2005 04:30:50 +0000

Years ago I remember hearing about the ELP Laser turntable. At the time it was often relegated to commercial radio stations who wanted to preserve LP?s that were of significant historical relevance, or the playback of rare irreplaceable albums.

It would appear as if ELP has improved the sound quality of the stylus free turntable quite a bit, the article mentions play back of a 30 year old LP with no audible surface noise. This high tech version of the old stand-by turntable doesn?t come cheap however; the retail of the ELP laser turntable is 10k USD.

Even with the hefty price tag, a unit such as this does have real world applications. Everyone has those ?special? LP?s that for whatever reason, are just to precious to risk to a worn stylus. The article goes on to mention that with broader marketing and licensing the ELP or similar laser turntable could drop into the budgets of mere mortals.

B.Greenway

Whats an analog lover to do

Administrator — Tue, 29 Mar 2005 03:24:27 +0000

While perusing a few articles about vintage hi-fi and turntables, I ran across an article by Fred O. Williams of the Buffalo News, now it started off friendly enough, it was about a gentlemen named Bill Baltes who runs a hi-fi repair shop in Amherst. New York. All is well and I?m reading along about a fellow hi-fi fan and then I read “Analog” technology uses physical representations of sound - the minutely carved grooves on a disc - to represent music. Because of its mechanical limitations, analog yields a less precise version of an original recording than a compact disc, which encodes each second of music with tens of thousands of digits.?

Haha I just couldn?t help but laugh ?encodes each second of music with tens of thousands of digits? I don?t think this writer has any idea of what it would really take to impart the actual information from a LP in digital terms.

This is one of the most frustrating notions about analog playback, I run across. It?s so hard to convince someone who?s been ?Digitally Brainwashed? that they?ve been feed a lie. To be honest at this point in the game I don?t know that it matters, digital itself is undergoing a transformation with DVD-Audio and SACD attempting to offer the sound quality, that some of us have enjoyed for years.

But I do feel that whatever format is to come in the next few years, that?s to replace SACD or alike, may truly once and for all make it a moot point. i.e. with just one more push from the digital engineers from Philips and or Sony, we may indeed be able to put the Analog vs. Digital debate to rest, that is for those of us who know it wasn?t over with the introduction of the Compact Disc

B.Greenway

Analog around the web

Administrator — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 04:50:18 +0000

The Turntable is making a comeback? I never knew it left
Here?s a nice write-up about something I know all to well, the basic premise of the article is that (1) turntables are still cool (2) they sound great and (3) the sound quality of records have never been surpassed CD. Not exactly a news flash, but worth showing to those friends of yours who think you?re crazy, for not throwing out all of those LP?s years ago.

Turning the tables on iPod?s
I just ran across a nice little article where the writer describes buying a turntable ?After nearly 20 years of exclusive loyalty to compact discs?. It?s a nice read, especially if you?ve considered doing the same recently.

B.Greenway